Cask Ale in the spotlight

Beers brewed with pre-industrial methods are more than experiments

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The event began under dark skies and rain, but hundreds showed up on time to huddle under tents and sip small-batch beers from dozens of craft breweries for Madison Craft Beer Week’s Cask Ale Fest.

Cask Ale is made using pre-industrial methods; no pasteurization or machine production, the way our ancient forebears made beer — put the right ingredients in the right cask, store correctly, and wait for fermented brew with natural carbonation. It’s recognizably beer, but about as distant from a can of Coors as you can get.

House of Brews, of Madison, poured “Gazebo Wheat,” light at 4% ABV and made with orange peel and chamomile. Quaffable; this would pair well with melted cheddar on multi-grain wheat bread.

Green Bay’s Hinterland had raspberry wheat ale with hibiscus: mild natural carbonation, full fruit, not too bright.

Capital Brewery showed off rum brown ale aged in Jamaican rum barrels for six months. Eight malts are mixed with molasses to provide (maybe a bit too much) sweetness.

Atwood Avenue’s Next Door Brewing brought a keg wrought of peach tea and lavender, with nice bitterness, though a little flat in flavor profile.

Pearl Street Brewery of La Crosse poured a gin-infused IPA and “Oaked Evil Doppelganger,” buttery and rich.

Trevor Easton, brewmaster for Madison’s ALT Brew, stood out with a gluten-free blonde IPA he calls “Hollywood Nights.” I found this one a bit funky in both the taste and aroma.

Sixpoint’s backstory of local talent conquering the East Coast and returning to Wisconsin is inspiring. Shane Welch was a homebrewer in Madison who moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., started up Sixpoint, and is now back in New Berlin. His “Bolshoi” was my personal favorite of the day, with many layers sequentially revealing themselves on tasting: coffee, vanilla and malt. The name of this brew means “big” in Russian — a well-conceived appellation.

Lakefront Brewery of Milwaukee produced a keg of “East Side Dark,” with rose petals and chocolate, both of which were readily detectable in the taste profile.

Scott Manning of Madison’s Vintage Brewing lit up when asked about his “Rosemary’s Baby.” He described the herbal aroma as “reminding me of pork chops...the rosemary works well with the American and English hops we use.”

Attendees were an intriguing mix of millennial fun-seekers, serious beer scholars and DIY maker types. Perhaps the audience for cask ale is beginning to merge with the mainstream. For all the news of craft breweries being absorbed by multinational corporations, independent brewing is thriving in Wisconsin.